From The Other Side Of The Family
by Manchester
Summary: After years avoiding this, Giles again meets someone also possessing his surname and wants nothing more than to get it over with as quickly as possible before things really go to hell. (And just why did an American have to be the one to write this?)
Going through this year's budget for the New Council was not Buffy's idea of how to best spend a fine spring day inside, but Giles promised to take her out to lunch when they were done, anywhere in London she wanted and free to order the most expensive thing on the menu. That kept her going even when she almost fell asleep in her chair, on the verge of collapsing nose-first into the heaped stacks of spreadsheets and many other very boring financial documents scattered throughout the worktable they were sharing in the Director's office at their London headquarters.

An amused cough coming from the opposite end of the table indicated he'd caught sight of her momentary weakness indicated by Buffy's descending head. Jerking back into staying upright again, the Slayer showed her maturity gained through over a decade now since the Sunnydale crater by instantly sticking out her tongue at Rupert Giles.

Before things could further devolve into actual teasing by a vastly entertained former Watcher, the pair were interrupted by Giles' secretary announcing through the desk intercom, "Director Giles, someone just came in the downstairs lobby and said they want to see you. Er…were you expecting her?"

Arising from his chair and walking over to the desk while giving Buffy a rather confused look, Giles pressed the speaker button. "I don't have any appointments for today that I know of, Ms. Finch. A woman, you say?"

Perking up at this sudden chance of a break from endless columns of figures laying out how a supernatural organization defending humanity from demons could afford paying for another twelve months the salaries of Slayers and Watchers worldwide, Buffy listened with growing interest how puzzled Giles' secretary seemed to be.

"Well, yes, and there's more. As a matter of fact, I have the oddest feeling I know her, even before she told the security desk she's your grandmother."

"Huh?" burst from a startled Buffy, gawking at where Giles himself was regarding the intercom with equal bewilderment. "Hey, Giles, I thought you said your grandma's dead! I remember you telling us this in the library, all the Scoobies, how she was the first Watcher in your family. Her name was, um, Eddie- No, that wasn't it-"

"Edna, Edna Fairweather Giles," a distracted Giles tossed over his shoulder. "And, yes, she passed away when I was a boy."

Disregarding how at that point Buffy got up from her chair and strode over to stand besides him, Giles frowned at the intercom before questioning Ms. Finch through this. "She's at the security desk? No alarms of any kind went off?"

"That's correct, sir," his secretary promptly responded. "Ms. Rosenberg's wards let her in without any problems. Should I contact the Red Witch about this, just to be on the safe side?"

Buffy interjected while walking around the desk to open a top drawer and rooting through the contents there, "Hold on a sec, Jessica. Let me find the remote and we'll look for ourselves…yeah, got it!"

Triumphantly pulling out a tv remote, Buffy pointed this at the wall monitor set at the far end of the office. It flickered on, changing from a _Doc Martin_ episode into a list of commands when Buffy put up the computer menu. In the next instant, Buffy and Giles were into the security camera system. To be precise, the ceiling camera for the downstairs lobby which showed-

"OH, BLOODY BUGGERING _HELL!_ " roared Rupert Giles at the top of his lungs. Right after, he sprinted towards the office door, throwing this open to bang against the wall and then disappearing into the anteroom beyond.

Tossing the remote onto Giles' desk and chasing after him, Buffy gave a bemused shrug of her shoulders while pausing at where his astonished secretary remained at her own desk. The Slayer ordered in a definite no-nonsense tone the other woman, "Lock down the building, Jessica, and call Willow to stay ready for anything! I'm gonna get some kind of explanation from Giles about this in the meantime!"

Buffy saw Jessica nod in confirmation and pick up a phone, before the heroine left the anteroom into the outside hallway. The elevator doors at the end of the hallway were beginning to close…

"No way!" gritted Buffy under her breath, picking up the pace. She covered the distance in a flash, zipping into the elevator whose closing door edges brushed the sides of Buffy's arms before automatically starting to open again. Stopping upon a dime inside the elevator, Buffy punched the proper console button to shut the doors before whirling around to confront a man resigned to his fate.

"Okay, so what set you off a minute ago, Giles? It better be real trouble, because we're going into lockdown and Wils might be here any second with all her mojo ready to zap into crunchy bits our latest guest up to no good."

"I sincerely doubt that'll do the trick," half-groaned Giles, almost to himself. He went on in this same defeated voice, "It's not like anything else has ever discouraged my grandmother the slightest when she's on the warpath!"

Buffy's mouth fell open at hearing that. She eventually managed, " _That_ little old lady, she's really alive after all-?"

Giles impatiently shook his head. "NO! Not my father's mother, the one before that, on the Giles side of the family! No one's sure exactly how old she is - _she's_ never admitted it - but we've always referred to her as Grandma. It's just easier that way, and believe me, nobody wants to annoy her!"

Leaning against the elevator wall, Buffy crossed her arms over her chest and bestowed an exasperated glare upon a grouchy New Council Director. "You had a relative show up when you weren't expecting them, and that's all it took for you to freak out? News flash, Giles, you're gonna have to apologize to everyone here about this!"

"If that's the sole aspect which goes amiss for us today, Buffy, we can genuinely count ourselves lucky!" Giles snapped back at Buffy rising her eyebrows over how serious he sounded. "That woman is dangerous!"

Still not convinced he actually meant this, Buffy brought up, "But you've never even mentioned her before! What's got you so worried?"

In a swift change of mood, Giles sighed in surrender while his shoulders sagged. "You think Xander is a troublemaking avatar of Chaos? My grandmother and her whole bloody family, the other Gileses, they've had decades of practice at making people suffer! We aren't really related to the cartoonist who immortalized this lot, just having the same name, but when Carl Giles came across them, he barely touched on how lunatic they could get! Our side of the family, all of us agreed the wisest course was to stay as far away from those relations as possible! And the very oldest of them all, she's now _here._ "

The elevator came to a stop and its doors opened. Rupert Giles, plastering a sickly smile over his face and stepping forward as if on the way to his firing squad, left the elevator while calling out, "Good morning, Grandma!"

Following after, Buffy stared in utter disbelief at the small, squat woman of undetermined age save for that of elderly, dressed all in black including her frock, handbag, umbrella, and hat. Standing there in the lobby with what looked like a dead fox wrapped around her neck, this grim-faced lady eyed her approaching young relation with extreme disfavor.

Buffy Summers had the sudden sensation that mere anarchy was loosened upon the world.

* * *

Author's Note: If you have no idea what the crossover is, go to Wikipedia and look up Carl Giles the British cartoonist, along with his hilarious portrayal of a certain family bearing that artist's name also shared by a fictional tv character. Rupert Giles would naturally dread meeting Grandma Giles.


End file.
